Jennycakes

My Cake Photo Gallery and Directions!
Doll/Princess Cakes  -  Chocolate Lollipop Cakes  -  Fancy Tiered Cakes  -  Shaped Sheet Cakes  -  3-D Cakes  -  Bakery Style Cakes   -  Chocolate Indulgence Cakes  -  Cupcakes  -  Ball Shaped Cakes  -  Jersey Shaped Cakes
Cupcakes &Cupcake Towers
Fondant Flower Tower Fondant Flower Cupcakes
Fondant Flower Topper Fondant Flower Cupcake
Mini-heart Cupcakes Construction Cupcakes
Noahs Ark Cupcakes
Soccer Cupcakes
Sweet Daisy Cupcakes
Color Swirl Cupcakes Chocolate Cupcakes
Fruit Covered Cupcakes Spider Web Cupcakes
Snow White Seven Dwarves Cupcakes
Train Cupcakes
Sock Monkey Cupcakes
Banana Chocolate Cupcake
Sugared Fruit Cupcake Tower Sugared Fruit cupcake
Bionicle cupcake
Swirl Cupcakes
Pink Mini-Cupcakes

Cupcakes, cupcakes...gotta love cupcakes!  While I love doing cakes, I find cupcakes to be a ton of fun as they are easier to make than a cake, require no carving or drawing to get the look you’d like, and you can go wild with creativity!  I’ve made them for adults and kids alike and everyone loves them. See below for the directions to the:

 Fondant Daisy cupcakesMini-Heart cupcakesConstruction cupcakes - Noah’s Ark cupcakesSoccer cupcakesSweet Daisy cupcakesColor Swirl cupcakesFruit Covered cupcakesSpider Web cupcakesSnow White & the Seven Dwarves cupcakesTrain cupcakesSock Monkey cupcakesBanana Chocolate cupcakes - Sugared Fruit cupcakes:

Baking cupcakes: One cake mix makes the following:

  • Large sized: ~15-18 large cupcakes by filling the liner 3/4 full.
  • Medium sized: ~18-20 medium cupcakes by filling the liner 2/3 full.
  • Small sized: ~ 24 small cupcakes by filling the liner 1/2 full.
  • Mini sized: ~40 mini-cupcakes by filling a the mini-liners 2/3 full.
  • And while I tend to eye-ball how much I'd like to fill the cup depending on the size I’d like, I recommend using the same spoon to fill each cup so your cupcakes will be all the same size.  I usually use a 1/4 cup measuring cup as I like the medium sized cupcakes. 

Frosting Cupcakes: Once baked & cooled, you can have so much fun frosting cupcakes!  Here are my three favorite ways to frost them:

Smooth Cupcake Frosting: The easiest way to frost a cupcake smooth is to put your frosting in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave it a bit (maybe start with 15 seconds) to make it slightly melty (like the consistency of Ranch dressing). Then hold your cupcake upside down, and dip the top into the frosting, swirling it around until all edges are covered. Swirl the cupcake as you lift it up and place in ‘fridge to harden.  The effect is a smooth & shiny frosting.  If your frosting is too runny (like chocolate syrup), do not dip your cupcake in unless you want to it look like a glaze (slightly see-thru and runny).  Simply wait until your frosting has hardened up a bit in the bowl and try again. Trust me, I’ve made the messes for you.

High-Swirl Cupcake Frosting:  The High-Swirl will look like a bakery-style frosting (or like a soft-serve ice-cream swirl), and is super simple.  Use your star tip, or a large plain hole tip for a smoother look, and squeeze the frosting out around the edge of the cupcake and in consecutively smaller circles as you build it up.  Just keep going until you get the height you like.  Please know, it takes a ton of frosting to use this method, and sometimes works best with large cupcakes as they likely have a rounded top already so will make your frosting swirl look higher. 

Grass-covered Cupcake Frosting: Using your grass-tip (my new favorite tip and one of the few I use any chance I get!), just squeeze or dot the frosting out onto the cupcake.  The tip has multiple holes, so you can make the top of the cupcake look like grass (think of the possibilities...Easter cupcakes, garden cupcakes, soccer cupcakes, golf cupcakes, bug cupcakes, cupcakes with hair...too fun!).

Decorating Cupcakes:  Decorating cupcakes is super fun, so here goes (my cupcake pictures are all on the left)...

Fondant Daisy cupcakes:  The pictures of the Gerbera daisy cupcakes are from my brother’s wedding and I was so excited to make them, especially because I just love my brother & his now wife to pieces.  These cupcakes were a journey as I had never really worked with fondant before, had to find a way to do 100 cupcakes for a wedding in New Jersey while I lived in Chicago and had an 8 week old baby to boot.  So I’ll say it again, if I could do it, so can you!  For the fondant daisy’s (see Decorating FAQ’s for more detail & pics), I simply bought white Wilton fondant, colored it as desired and rolled it out to 1/8 inch thick.  Then I used the Wilton daisy cutter and cut 2 large daisy shapes and 1 small daisy shape.  I re-rolled the cut-outs gently just to lose the ‘just cut’ look. I then used a tooth-pick to press a line along each side of each petal and one line down the middle of each petal.  Using a tiny bit of water ( I just dipped my finger in a cup with water and then spread it on the fondant), I stacked one large daisy on another large daisy and then repeated with the small size on top. I then rolled a small ball in green colored fondant and put it in the middle (‘gluing’ it with the water from my finger) and pressed in gently so it was a bit flattened. I then put the entire daisy in a flattened out cupcake liner and allowed to dry.  I frosted the cupcakes with the Smooth Cupcake frosting (see above for directions) and when the daisy’s were hardened, I then placed a dollop of frosting on top of the cupcake and added the Daisy!  And if you’d like to know how I managed the cross-country trip, just send me an e-mail and I'll give you the whole scoop!

Mini-heart cupcakes: These are mini-cupcakes (I have a mini-cupcake baking pan) made with chocolate cake and frosted with vanilla buttercream.  I used the High-Swirl Cupcake frosting (see above for directions) added a little candy heart on top (no, I did not make this one but bought it at the store).  The mini-cupcakes were so cute and were a big hit for the Bunco night...just the right bite-size of Yum!

Construction cupcakes: These are medium sized cupcakes frosted with the High-Swirl Cupcake frosting (see above for directions). I used  yellow frosting and actually used paper construction signs to decorate.  Now, while ideally everything would be edible on my cakes sometimes I need to use ‘mixed-media’. For this one, I went on-line and found some pictures of construction signs.  I copied them into PowerPoint, shrunk them to the size preferred and copied them in as many multiples as I needed. Then I printed them out on Photo paper and simply cut them out and stuck them into the frosting (let your frosting harden up in the refrigerator before you stick them in).  The Photo paper is coated so it doesn’t droop in the frosting and the ink won’t run...it’s super cool and I use this method on lots of funny cakes & cupcakes.  The kids LOVED the construction signs!

Noah’s Ark cupcakes:  For these, I used the same process as with the Construction cupcakes (above) using medium cupcakes, swirled high with frosting, topped with little cut-outs of animals that I got from pictures on-line (look into free clip-art and you’d be amazed by what you can find for free!).  For this cupcake tower though, I made a Noah’s ark to put on the top tier, and then filled the lower tiers with cupcakes.  The Ark cake was super simple.  Just bake 2 8x8 cakes and after cooled, filled & stacked cut into an ark shape (like a diamond) and frost with chocolate frosting.  Then frost two graham cracker squares and let harden in ‘fridge.  Once your frosting is set-up, place the graham crackers on the top of the boat like a tent. Viola, a totally cute ark! 

 Soccer cupcakes:  I used medium sized cupcakes, frosted with Grass-covered cupcake frosting (see above for directions).  Then I created the soccer balls from chocolate as follows:  I covered a cookie sheet in saran wrap and melted some Wilton white chocolate using the bag’s direction. Once runny, I used a spoon to dollop out a large circle of chocolate and swirled it around to create the soccer ball shape (keep the chocolate about 1/4 inch thick). Once the ball is hardened in the ’fridge, I used black frosting to pipe on the soccer ball design, and inserted the chocolate ball into the cupcake.  My team thought these were AWESOME!

Sweet Daisy cupcakes:  I used medium sized cupcakes (does anyone see a trend here) and frosted each one smooth with the Smooth Cupcake Frosting (see directions above) in the desired color.  For the daisy, I simply piped it on in white, piped a yellow circle in the middle and added a few large yellow sprinkle in the middle for some 3-D effect.  Totally cute and I've made these not only for little girl parties, but for some big girls parties too (you know who you are-Happy 40th!).

Color Swirl cupcakes:  To make bakery style cupcakes where the frosting is swirled with color, you need to use a color stripe technique.  Stripe your frosting bag with 3 colors (just use a knife dipped in the Wilton frosting coloring and spread it in a line from the tip to top of the inside of your frosting bag in 3 separate lines in the bag), fill with white frosting and swirl it on your cupcake. The coloring will swirl onto the frosting as you pipe it on!  Note:  As you use up your frosting, you will likely need to re-stripe, which is bit messy, but the effect is worth it (to avoid the mess, just plan on using more than one bag when frosting these cupcakes!).

Fruit covered cupcakes:  A delicious and indulgent cupcake look is to just slop the frosting on the cupcake nice and thick and then cover each cupcake in various fruits (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.)  It makes for a berry delicious and berry beautiful display!
-Spider Web cupcakes:  These cupcakes are just perfect for Halloween (obviously!) and I made them for a school party. I simply made 36 cupcakes, used the smooth frosting technique above for a smooth shiny, orange frosting and piped on a spider web in black frosting.   Finally, I stuck a spider ring in each cupcake, putting each ring at a different angle for a really custom and homemade look for the cupcakes.  They were a huge hit!

Spider Web cupcakes:  These cupcakes are just perfect for Halloween (obviously!) and I made them for a school party. I simply made 36 cupcakes, used the smooth frosting technique above for a smooth shiny, orange frosting and piped on a spider web in black frosting.   Finally, I stuck a spider ring in each cupcake, putting each ring at a different angle for a really custom and homemade look for the cupcakes.  They were a huge hit!

Snow White’s Dwarves cupcakes:  To compliment a Princess Doll cake based on the Snow White character, I used these great Dwarves cupcakes.  I simply made 24 cupcakes (only 7 are shown here), used the high swirl frosting in yellow to match her skirt and inserted a Dwarf cut-out (cut-outs created by simply Googling ‘Snow White’s Seven Dwarves’ images, and found some simple images that I copied into PowerPoint, shrunk to size desired, ~3 inches, and cut out!).  The birthday girl was so thrilled to see Snow White & the Seven Dwarves for her birthday and even more thrilled she got to eat them!

Train cupcakes:  For my son’s two year birthday, I used the Williams & Sonoma train cupcake pan to make a Cupcake Train Set (I rarely if ever use mold pans, but this one I got as a gift and it is fun).  This Train cupcake set is another great idea for those tight on time as once the cupcakes are baked, virtually no time is needed to decorate. I named it the Candy Express and he thought it was so AWESOME!  I made the train cupcakes in chocolate cake and then used all types of candy to decorate (M&Ms and Skittles, gummy lifesavers for the wheels and licorice for the tracks).  I used vanilla buttercream to hold the candy on & stripe the engine and cars.  I also used Keebler Elf cookies and stood them up as people waving at the train.  And while the cake was yummy, I’ll admit that the kids just ate the candy...I swear they hardly even touched the cake and went straight for the goodies!  :)

Sock Monkey cupcakes: These are medium sized cupcakes frosted with the High-Swirl Cupcake frosting (see above for directions). I used white vanilla buttercream, and used the coloring striping technique for the color swirl. See the color swirl cupcake above for details on this simple but fun technique! After frosted, I used ‘mixed-media’ for the sock monkeys. I went on-line and found an image of a sock monkey. I copied it into PowerPoint, shrunk it to the size preferred (~3x3 inches) and copied them in as many multiples as I needed. Then I printed them out on Photo paper and simply cut them out and stuck them into the frosting (let your frosting harden up in the refrigerator before you stick them in).  The Photo paper is coated so it doesn’t droop in the frosting and the ink won’t run...it’s super cool and I use this method on lots of funny cakes & cupcakes.  The girls LOVED the little monkeys!

Banana Chocolate cupcake: These cupcakes were made simply because I had invited people over for breakfast and had nothing to serve....good thing I have cakes around these days! These are medium sized cupcakes made from yellow cake batter swirled with melted chocolate (see Recipes for how to swirl cake batter flavors).  To make these cupcakes, I took the cupcake out of the liner, sliced it in half lengthwise and then placed the bottom slice back in the liner. I then placed 4 or 5 banana slices on the bottom layer, and placed the top cupcake layer back on (like a sandwich). Next, I heated up some chocolate fudge frosting (from a tub) in the microwave until it was warm and runny, and poured it over each cupcake (See Decorating for full directions). Serve these cupcakes with a fork, and you will love them (I actually remade them for my husband for dessert too)! And yes, this is a Jennycakes original!

Sugared Fruit cupcake: This cupcake tower looked so gorgeous with the sugared fruit...what a cake event!  It was actually pretty simple as long as you plan for it. In advance, make your sugared fruit using whatever fruit you like best (use fruit with a peel, like plums, and see Decorating FAQs for full directions). These cupcakes were medium sized, and used yellow cake. I frosted them using the Smooth Frosting technique (see above) with vanilla buttercream. Once frosted, I added a shell border around each cupcake to match the cake. Next, I placed a piece or more of sugared fruit on each cupcake. For details on the cake on the top of the tower, please see the Bakery Gallery.  This cupcake tower goes for any occasion and looks very special!  Enjoy!

Bionicle Cupcake: Ok, you see the cupcake with the big action figure toy on top...the one that looks like it's ready to battle you for the cupcake tower (& could kick your patooty in the process). Yeah, that's my son's idea of an awesome cupcake tower. He just wanted me to frost up the cupcakes and then he had  a blast sticking the guys all over the cupcake tower! It was such a blast watching him have fun & knowing that the cupcake tower was like a real live battleground for him!  Too fun & I highly encourage you to let your kids go crazy. It's fun playing with your food...especially when it's cupcakes!